Stork Markets: An Analysis of “Baby-Selling”

This essay presents a conceptual and moral rather than an economic analysis of “baby-selling.” Its purpose is to address certain fundamental issues concerning the moral status of children, the moral basis of the family, the moral propriety of commerce, and the ways in which these moral presuppositions and principles find expression in law and social institutions. We seek to shed light on immediate and practical concerns including the present “shortage” of babies in the white market and contemplated federal legislation regulating adoption.’ We also hope to provoke consideration now of related forms of commerce that technology will soon permit.

Volume 4, Number 2 (1980)